Category Archives: Weird and wonderful

Victorian Strangeness: The man who hoped to die in a railway crash

You thought model railway enthusiasts were strange.  How about this from the BBC News web site? Money. Property. Land. Heirlooms. Whatever the mourners were hoping to inherit when they first gathered for the reading of the will, they were to … Continue reading

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(Rail)road runner

Next real post tomorrow with the ESNG meeting tonight.  However, here’s a bonus post.  Combining bird-watching and train-spotting would be ideal. I think the poor critter looks a bit confused.  It’s a road, Jim, but not as we know it…. (Picture … Continue reading

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Is it a bird, is it a train?

Here’s an irresistable snippet from the BBC (bold text mine). In 1970, the British Railways Board filed a patent for a spacecraft powered by “controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction”. The original patent application said the reaction would be “ignited by one … Continue reading

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Is our hobby art?

A blog post I was reading recently asked the following question: Is our hobby a creative art form? And added a quote from John Updike: “Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better” I was mulling … Continue reading

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Physics Room 101

Originally posted on The Erratic and Wandering Journey:
Well, it has been a while since I posted, but I have had little to say – I hope I have done it eloquently. Anyway, I have been assembling L-girders, cutting sub…

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Quelle dommage!!

Funny how posts always seem to come, like the proverbial buses, close together after a long delay.  So here’s another prototype item, this time from the BBC web site. The French train operator SNCF has discovered that 2,000 new trains … Continue reading

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Apocalyptic Perspectives and Dystopian Dioramas (recommended)

The Model Railroad Design blog recently had an inspirational post on “Apocalyptic Perspectives and Dystopian Dioramas” offering some inspirational, if slightly depressing ideas for model railroad design.  I recommend the full article, but here are a couple of photographs from the … Continue reading

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Would you dare model this?

This is the ultimate piece of trackwork.  It comes from Sardinia, and presumably is used to turn locomotives (or maybe just to confuse people).  It’s tempting to build, despite the curved crossings, but you would need to have a picture … Continue reading

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I’m not optimistic

Reading the local paper and Network Rail’s website I find the good news that…. More trains and more seats as Network Rail kicks off five-year £2.3bn programme in South East This includes….. Sussex – Passengers in Sussex will also see … Continue reading

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3 weeks to the ESNG show

And you will get much better “bargains” in the club shop than the one below! (Can’t seem to reblog this from the ‘Playing Trains‘ blog, so I’ve just copied it).  I hate to think what it would have cost with … Continue reading

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